From: Leevi Marttila (lm+mail@sip.fi)
Date: Sun Nov 09 1997 - 02:54:35 MST
Hal Finney <hal@rain.org> writes:
> I just skimmed Penrose's book, but my impression is that he claims that
> mathematicians have an instinctive ability to recognize mathematical
> truth. Machines, which are deterministic computer programs and therefore
> can be in principle be described as formal systems, are limited by Godel's
> theorem and are unable to recognize certain truths. Since people are
> (according to Penrose) unlimited in their ability to recognize mathematical
> proof, this would mean that they are not formal systems and therefore no
> machine can do mathematics in the way a person does. (And hence, among
> other things, uploading and AI are impossible.)
Wouldn't adding random input to machine make Penrose's argument about
Godel's theorem irrelevant?
-- LM lm+signature@sip.fi
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